what matters is you, not the state of you.

Santiago Cabrera as Lancelot in Merlin (2008-2011)

37. Gone Fishing

When I turned 17, we ordered a cake at the grocery store for my party, as we’d done many times before. If you wanted something written on the cake you’d write it into a section of the order form. We requested, very simply, “Happy Birthday Courtney”. When we went to pick it up the day of the party, this is what we got.

The bakery employees had absolutely no explanation for this. The order form, attached to the box, very clearly did not contain any of those extra names. Whomever had done the writing was no longer in, so there was no one to ask how this had happened. The fact that the name ‘Juan’ is misspelled bewilders me to this day. (I’ve never seen ‘Miley’ without the E, either, but it’s believable that someone might spell it that way.) Did this cake slip in from an alternate universe where I’m one quarter of a set of Hispanic quadruplets? Dyslexic Hispanic quadruplets, maybe?

This cake became the focal point of my party. At least two of my friends regularly called me ‘Courtney Mily Jaun Pablo’ for years to come. My siblings and I still reference it sometimes, eleven years later. It is probably the funniest thing ever to occur at any birthday celebration of my life, and may well remain so for the rest of my days.

No One Like You

now, it took us a while to realise it meant "(there is) no one like you". at first, we all parsed it as a botched "no one like(s) you"

Mo dao messes with the cycle of reincarnation, which is why the Yiling Patriarch becomes so reviled. The term mo dao is actually used only ONCE in the novel - when Wei Wuxian notes that people called him “the grandmaster of demonic cultivation”

It uses living humans, extracts qi out of them, and involves the destruction of golden cores, brainwashing, and effectively vampiring living beings for the sake of power. It doesn’t use ambient resentment, it creates it by harming others.

The reason we’re continuously told (by people who know nothing of Wei Wuxian’s path) that he’s at risk of going insane is because that’s what mo dao does. It warps the mind and body because the source of resentment is within the user

Wei Wuxian calls his cultivation “the ghostly path” or “ghost cultivation” (gui dao). Hell, the only other person shown to match his expertise on the subject - Xue Yang - also calls it gui dao. Xue Yang !! He’d be delighted to call his actions demonic !! If he’s insisting on calling it “ghostly”, then that tells us that the difference matters

So what is gui dao ? First of all, we know that it doesn’t mind-control people as a baseline - that’s why Wei Wuxian ended up dying the first go around. We know that it utilises pre-existing resentful energy in the world to direct the dead

We know, also, that it requires a certain level of understanding of the dead. One of the spells Wei Wuxian creates is literally named Empathy.

We know that the power source is usually external (the Burial Mounds, the Stygian Tiger Seal), and that it, most importantly, doesn’t create demons. It creates ghosts and fierce corpses. And because of this, it likely doesn’t prevent reincarnation.

Why is the distinction important ? Because the former is what mo dao does. It creates mo.

We’re told the difference - very intentionally - in one of the earliest parts of the story, when Lan Qiren asks Wei Wuxian the difference between gui (ghosts) and mo (demons) and yao, and gets the correct answer

“Tell me, are demons (妖 Yao), devils (魔 Mo), ghosts (鬼 Gui) and monsters (怪 Guai) all the same thing?”

(“我问你，妖魔鬼怪，是不是同一种东西?”)

Wei Wuxian smiled. “No.”

“Why not? How do you distinguish between them?”

“Demons are transformed from living creatures other than humans. Devils are transformed from living humans. Ghosts are transformed from the dead. Monsters are transformed from inanimate objects other than humans.”

(“妖者非人之活物所化；魔者生人所化；鬼者死者所化；怪者非人之死物所化。”)

“‘Yao’ (妖) and ‘guai’ (怪) are easily confused. Could you give an example to distinguish them?”

(“‘妖’与‘怪’极易混淆，举例区分?”)

[…] “Take, for instance, a living tree that has absorbed overheard knowledge for a hundred years, cultivated itself into a spirit, developed a consciousness, and now haunts and troubles people. That's a ‘demon’ (妖). But if I were to take an axe and chop it down, leaving only a dead stump, and it were to cultivate into a spirit again, that would be a ‘monster’ (怪).” (“臂如一颗活树，沾染书香之气百年，修炼成精，化出意识，作祟扰人，此为‘妖’。若我拿了一把板斧，拦腰砍断只剩个死树墩儿，它再修炼成精，此为‘怪’。”)

[…]

“Let me ask you this: there was once an executioner who had parents, a wife and children, yet beheaded over a hundred people during his lifetime. He met a violent end in the streets, his body left exposed for seven days. His pent-up resentment has led him to haunt and commit atrocities. What should you do?”

Lan Wangji […] said calmly, "Salvation first, suppression second, extermination third. First, appeal to their parents, wife, and children, fulfilling their wishes in life and dispelling their obsessions. If that doesn't work, then suppress them; if their crimes are heinous and their resentment lingers, then eradicate them completely, allowing them no chance of survival. […]"

Wei Wuxian said, "Although 'salvation' is said to be the first priority, 'salvation' is often impossible. 'Fulfilling their wishes in their previous life and dispelling their obsessions' is easier said than done. If these obsessions are a new set of clothes is fine, but what if it means killing an entire family to avenge a wrong?"

Lan Wangji said, "Then, suppression should assist salvation. If necessary, extermination would also follow."

Wei Wuxian smiled slightly and said, "What a waste." […] "This executioner died a violent death, so it's inevitable that he became a fierce corpse. Since he beheaded over a hundred people in his lifetime, why not dig up the graves of those hundred, stir up their resentment, and gather the hundred to fight against the fierce corpse."

[…]

Lan Qiren abruptly stood up: "‘Subduing devils and taking down demons, driving out ghosts and destroying malevolent forces (伏魔降妖、除鬼歼邪,) —all this is done for the sake of salvation! Not only do you fail to contemplate the path to salvation, but you even seek to stir up their resentment? You've spit in the face of natural order, disregarding human ethics!"

Wei Wuxian said, "Since some things are useless for salvation anyway, why not make use of them? Even Yu the Great knew that blocking is the worst strategy, while dredging is the best. Suppression is blocking, isn't it a worst strategy." […] "Spiritual energy is energy, and resentment is energy too. Spiritual energy, stored in the dantian, can split mountains and fill seas for human use. Why can't resentment be used for human use?"

[…] "Then let me ask you again! How can you guarantee that this resentment will be used for your own benefit and not to harm others?"

Wei Wuxian […] replied: "I haven't thought of that yet!"

Lan Qiren roared: "If you had, the entire cultivation world would not have allowed you to live. Get out!"

I believe we actually do see Mo several times in the novel! Mostly in the form of qi deviations and use of the Tiger Tally.

走火入魔 is translated as qi deviation, but "being possessed" is more fitting. Modernly it's used as a way to say "to be obsessed", but in the original daoist/buddhist context, it's about focusing on hallucinations that can arise during meditation. It happens due to unhealthily intense focus on sensations, feeling, desires, ect, leading to confusion between illusion and reality. The Nie clan is prone to it because they use sabers that eventually became monsters filled with killing intent. The users become possessed with rage or despair and it eventually kills them.

However, we also see this with WWX too! During the Bloodbath of Nightless City he looses control of corpses and is so overwhelmed with anger mixed with despair he became possessed with his need for revenge. After he looses all control of himself he also looses recollection of what happened and act as if he wasn't consciously there. He's just mindlessly hurting everyone around. An important role in that plays the Tiger Tally which is similar to Nie clan's sabers. Both are filled with and feed off of resentment, but the resentment also infects the user of the weapon. The saberes are cultivated using resentful energy of beasts and creatures they slay, while the Tally was created with the sword from inside the Xuanwu of Slaughter, which was filled with the resentful energy of all the people it ate. The Tally however doesn't form any conciseness or bonds with any user, it's just a tool filled with the overwhelming intent of mindless revenge.

Another thing are the actual Mo cultivators, who use energy of living humans rather than dead like Wei Wuxian does. He understandably doesn't like them, because unlike the ghost path, which requires control over your emotions and compassion, it's done to or with the harm of living humans. He wanted to use the unrest dead to deal with those being that can't be saved, ideally additionally helping the unrest with moving on by using them. In this way even people too weak to form a core can help with night hunts. Instead people who have selfish desires use it to harm others. This is exactly what Lan Qiren feared. Wei Wuxian opened the door to demonic path, whether he wanted or not. He never figured out how to make sure the method is used for good and not to harm others.

Mo Xuanyu wore makeup which made him resemble a hanged ghost. He specifically used his mother's makeup, one of the only things he had, left behind by the only person who loved him, after she hanged herself.

Diào sǐ guǐ (吊死鬼), the ’hanged ghost’, is a restless, vengeful spirit. They have pale face, bloodshot, protruding eyes with dark red circles around them, disheveled hair, and a long, blood-red tongue. Often they are portraited with long neck and purple lips. It was believed that people who committed suicide by hanging had strong resentment and needed to find a substitute to die in their place in order to be able to be reborn. Hanging ghosts cannot be reincarnated unless they find a substitute.

Wei Wuxian also couldn't be reborn after the death he brought on himself, it's implied his spirit couldn't even be contacted until Mo Xuanyu died and gave his body in WWX's place. By offering his body and soul to a "heinous evil spirit" he was able to be reincarnated, but the ghost needs to fulfill the caster's wishes or their soul will be permanently destroyed. Wei Wuxian gave up on the world. I don't think Mo Xuanyu makeup was just accidentally resembling a hanged ghost. Wei Wuxian basically killed himself and refused to do anything as a ghost.

There's also a belief that the more you look like a demon at the time of your death, especially if you died violently with hate, the more likely you would become an evil spirit after death.

Hi everyone, My name is Brie & I’m sorry to keep posting like this but i’m really struggling and in need right now. Asking for assistance so I can refill my omni card & get groceries this week. I’m currently between jobs but actively looking and struggling with my mental health & not wanting to be a burden to my family. I’ve been asking my mom & sister for money & I haaaaate having to rely on my family that also struggling & doesn’t really have it to give to me, so i’m asking y’all. Please please PLEASE if you see this please boost this so the right people can see it. I’m really at the end of my rope here. Literally anything helps, y’all. Thanks for reading❤️

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- m/f ship between a nonblack man & a Black woman

- it's either canon (e.g. mel/jayce arcane, arthur/guinevere bbcmerlin) or entirely plausible (e.g. prism or coupé/robert dispatch)

- fanbase overwhelmingly pairs nb man off with another nb man and disengages from the Black woman character, shunting her into a background wise & sassy caretaker role (for which there is a name) or leaving her out of fanworks entirely

- fans who do this ^ claim it is an expression of love and admiration for the Black woman character, actually, bc the nb man (who may be her canonical partner) "can't handle all that" (he may be perfectly competent and engaged; she may be totally low maintenance; it has no bearing), she's just too wonderful (too much) and out of his league (lacking in flaws and interiority and fan appeal)